Canon CanoScan 8800F Color Image Scanner (2168B002)
by Canon Office Products
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List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Canon CanoScan 8800F Color Image Scanner (2168B002)
Customer Review: CanoScan 8800F
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm using this scanner primarily for archiving my collection of 2 1/4 X 3 1/4 black & white negatives before they completely deteriorate. I have well over 1500 of them going back 65 years ago when I was in high school.
I made my own negative holder from a piece of cardboard which lets me line up to scan 4 negatives at a time. The 3 1/8 X 10 1/2 light gave me adequate room to do this.
I'm scanning at a 300 DPI, which I find is more than adequate for displaying on my computer and occasionally making some 4 x 6 prints. It takes me less than a minute per negative, so it doesn't take forever. I doubt I would ever want anything much larger, but if I did, I can always ratchet up the dpi, and of course the scanning time would take longer.
It took me a few tries to discover how to set up the Canon Navigator program --- click on Scan Film, check off the "use scanner drives" box, click on Open Scanner Driver, and make selections on the right of the screen. I can then preview the scan and click & drag boxes around the parts of each negative I want to capture. After the first several tries, I found it all really is pretty intuitive.
The documentation could be vastly improved by letting you print out the entire help file without crawling thru it one section at a time. I do much better with a printed copy than with on-screen help, but perhaps it's just a habit of old age.
I tried a few of my 35mm slides, and even with them the scanning time is reasonable, since I'm never going to blow them up larger than 4 x 6 prints --- I'm doing all this for archive purposes and not for salon quality.
I also have made good use of the ocr features of the bundled OmniPage. While I haven't used it yet, it's nice to have the bundled Photoshop Elements 5 - more than adequate for my needs. It was these bundles which helped me choose this over the comparable Epson.
Peace,
Alan
Alan Taplow, [...]
ataplow@vtlink.net * [...]
Customer Review: Just like other Canon products - Smooth Operation
Summary: 5 Stars
The good: Ordered one day got it the next. The scanner is almost that fast. Opened the box, plugged the scanner into an USB port on my monitor, and was scanning a few minutes later. Just a little background for those of you using Vista, I am using Windows Vista(tm) Home Premium, 64 bit system with quad core processors.
Documents: Scanning is clear. Using the included software you have several different methods to save a document including, jpg, tiff, pdf, and a long list of others. I have used the following software with no issues, Microsoft Office 2007, all products, Quicken Home & Business 2009, Corel Paint Shop Photo Pro X2. Eliminate several file cabinets.
Photos: Very fast, cleans up photos well. Currently not using the software included to modify any colors.
Slides: 35mm, 4 at a time very fast at less than 1200 DPI, 60 seconds + each slide at 2400 DPI, but very high quality. Encountered the same problem as other users with square file in 35mm slides. But I guess that is why the manufacturer included a crop icon. Ask yourself, who is going to look at the slides in 25 years?
The bad: Hard time keeping the lid open. Hinges are as others have indicated, a little on the loose side. Oh well, keeps the dust off of the glass. I never have been able to get the included software "MP Navigator EX" to work. I have been working with the Canon tech team via email when I have time. Keep getting a message "not enough memory", could be a .dll conflict. Cannot seem to get the "Presto Scan Button" icons to work correctly. Still working on the issue. However, they are not essential.
The ugly: Don't forget the "SE" on the included software usually means "Special Edition", which translates to if you want to use the features you like the word is "Upgrade". The help files in most of these SE software references features which are not available in the "SE" version. Vendors would be better off leaving crippled software out rather than having frustrated users. If you don't need it, don't load it.
Customer Review: Works great as expected!
Summary: 5 Stars
Ever since my older brother died two years ago I have been wanting to get a scanner that can do film and slides as well as prints. My brother was an artist and photographer so he left behind a portfolio of some of his work, both in negative and slide form. Plus we found a large rubbermaid storage container filled to the brim with pictures, negatives, slides and film reels from the late 50's into the 70's. I don't recall EVER seeing that film (so am now hunting for a firm to convert film to DVD).
I received my first shipment and UPS had damaged it in shipping so had to ship that one back to Amazon who shipped me a new one immediately. I have now had it for two days.
I loaded the software onto my macbook pro with ease. The scanner works quite well with my mac. I began my search on Apple.com in their store to find a scanner that is known to work with macs. This was one they listed and it had the features I wanted. Next step was to search "best" price (including shipping). As an Amazon Prime customer I get free 2 day shipping. Plus Amazon had the cheapest price. Made my decision where to purchase.
I have scanned several slides (100+) over the past two days. I am not familiar with the software so am not sure exactly what some things are suppose to do, but am muddling my way through. Some of the slides were really dark (no flash used?) and was unable to lighten them up sufficiently no matter what I tried. But that is not the software's fault, I am pretty sure that it was photographer error in not using a flash.
Haven't tried the Photoshop Elements software yet, just have used the PhotoStudio tools. I am very happy with this product and am having a blast seeing pictures of my parents and my brother that I have never seen before.
If you are looking for an economical choice to scan film, slides and prints - stop your search - I doubt there is a better product out there for under $200.
Customer Review: Great scanner; awkward software for the Mac
Summary: 5 Stars
I approached this scanner with a generally positive attitude when my trusty Epson 4180 died, having been a long-time fan of the Canon Elph cameras and a generally satisfied user of a i4300 printer (after doing battle with Canon software). That latter bit should have tipped me off.
I am very impressed with the scanner itself, but the provided software (latest version downloaded) is typical bloatware. With a MacBook Pro still running 10.4.11, the driver installer hangs every time, whether or not MP Navigator EX has been installed. Uninstalling with deldrvr has no effect, and my first half-baked theory was that it is incompetently handling the existence of the previous Epson scanner driver. But a full uninstall of all that made no difference.
I explored the system install logs, and saw no errors... and the scanner indeed works fine with both Image Capture (quick and simple) and the Canon MP Navigator EX (multiple passes and about 4X the elapsed time to accomplish the same thing). I'm left with the impression that this is characteristically excellent Canon hardware hobbled by clunky software (the Mac version, anyway). A MacBook with current Leopard installed the driver just fine.
My favorite usage mode is to use Twain Acquire from within Graphic Converter, which uses ScanGear to very cleanly take care of the interface. I see no reason to use MP Navigator.
I'll update this short review if I have any useful advice to pass along to fellow Mac folk, or discover any pilot errors that made startup such an ordeal. Scans, once past the hurdles and minor learning curves, were excellent... with the only observation so far that coins (for eBay) require much more contrast enhancement than they did with the Epson 4180. This is probably a function of the angle between light source and sensor, making it more susceptible to reflection. I'll elaborate as I learn more.
Customer Review: Scanning medium format mounted positives
Summary: 5 Stars
I own a Nikon Coolscan V ED that I use for 35mm mouted slide scans. I needed something for medium format (2 1/4 x 2 1/4) mounted slides - slides that were in cardboard mounts for projection. I could find nothing that included carriers for this format, but saw that the 8800F would handle 120 film. I figured I would take a chance and see if I could make this scanner work for me.
It arrived this afternoon. After unpacking, installation and trying a couple of test scans using the included scangear software, I set about trying to scan my medium format slides. I first treid using the 120 film holder, but with so-so results. The film was held too far away from the scanner glass and the side pressure form the locator pins warped the film slightly. I then took a closer look at the 35mm slide holder and decided that I could make one along the same lines for my larger slides. I used a piece of illustration board the same size as the scanner glass and cut two rectangular holes in it using the 120 film holder as a guide for the placement of the calibration window and the actual slide scanning window. I made the slide windw large enough to take the slides in their plastic holders so that I could remove them form the projection magazines and scan them in the holders without removing them from the support frames.
It worked like a charm! The backlight in the cover is wide enough to illuminate the entire slide and the Scangear software allows you to save color correction settings speeding up the process of scanning these very old slides, most of which have very faded cyan dyes making the slides extremely "red". I figure it will take a couple of days to scan the 600 or so slides and create DVDs for delivery to my customer - a job that would have been torturous in the extreme using single slide scanners.
I'm very happy with this scanner.